"I hear mixed reviews regarding the faith of our Catholic teens. Some say our Catholic teens have very little faith and some say the faith of these teens is absolutely amazing. What’s the deal?"

Great question.

Clear answer: The National Study on Youth and Religion reveals that almost 90% of Catholic teens believe in God and heaven, and pray regularly. Three out of four say that their faith is important to them and influences their decisions. Seventy percent say they are interested in learning more about their faith.

But the study also revealed that Catholic teens cannot articulate why their Catholic faith matters to them, or how it effects their lives, or what specific beliefs mean the most to them. The best summation I’ve ever heard came from Bishop Richard Malone of Portland, Maine. After we spent two days discussing the results of the study with the actual researchers, Bishop Malone said “They’re Catholic beige.” Think about it. Beige goes along with everything. Beige is warm. Beige is simple. We love painting the walls of our house beige. Yet it lacks color, texture, etc.